Testimony
of
Mark Rodeffer
Chair, Sierra Club DC Chapter
before the
DC Council Committee on Facilities and Procurement
Hearing on
Fiscal Year 2020 Budget for the DC Department of General Services
Thank you, Councilmember White, for holding this important hearing today on the fiscal year 2020 budget for the DC Department of General Services (DGS). My name is Mark Rodeffer. I’m the chair of the Sierra Club DC Chapter. The Sierra Club is the nation’s oldest and largest environmental advocacy group. We have 3,000 dues-paying members in DC. Our top priority is fighting climate change.
I’m testifying today because of the importance of energy efficiency in combating climate change. The cleanest form of energy is energy that is never used and never wasted. Inefficient buildings, energy-hogging appliances, poorly insulated doors and windows and outdated heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems contribute to climate change. Fixing those problems is part of the solution to climate change.
Budgeting for Energy Efficiency Retrofits & Performance
Mayor Bowser’s budget requests $13 million dollars over six years for energy efficiency retrofits of DC government buildings. This includes things like green infrastructure, highly efficient heating and cooling systems, better insulated doors and windows, and more efficient appliances and plumbing systems. And of course these are actually cost savings measures in the long-term, because they lower utility bills.
The Sierra Club applauds the $13 million request for retrofits. In addition to retrofits, DGS needs more money to properly maintain buildings that have already been designed to be highly energy efficient. Maintenance of DC government buildings is not an issue that excites many people. As as a result, that money is easy to cut, and no one notices until something goes wrong, like a boiler going out an elementary school. But the fact of the matter is, maintaining our buildings to meet their potential is vital – for combating climate change, saving taxpayers money, and making sure our buildings don’t face unexpected emergencies, like a boiler going out in an elementary school.
Energy Efficiency Design and Performance
In 2017, DC was named the first LEED Platinum certified city in the world. That was based primarily on the strength of our private buildings. DC government buildings are underperforming. Even when our buildings are designed to the highest standards, many do not perform at that level.
For instance, the new Dunbar High School was designed with the highest LEED standard of any school in the entire world. The new Dunbar, completed in July 2013 at a cost of $128 million, features photovoltaic solar panels, geothermal wells, rainwater cisterns, and extensive interior day-lighting.
Today, Dunbar’s Energy Star score is 41. That means it’s in the 41st percentile – below the national average for schools. That’s a tragedy. DC taxpayers spent $128 million to design and build a school with the highest environmental and energy standards in the world, and today that school is behind most other schools in the country.
Dunbar isn’t the only well designed but poorly performing DC government building. We don’t know exactly why Dunbar and so many other DC government buildings are underperforming. But we need to find out what the problem is so that we can fix it. DGS needs sufficient resources to accomplish this task. And this committee needs to provide appropriate oversight to guarantee the task is accomplished.
Clean Energy DC Omnibus Act Implementation
Last December, the DC Council passed the Clean Energy DC Omnibus Act, which makes the District a national leader on combating climate change. That law requires that by January 1, 2020, DGS have a Strategic Energy Management Plan for reducing energy and water use across the DGS portfolio of buildings.
The law requires DGS to implement energy efficiency retrofits across at least 9 percent of DC government buildings by square footage between 2021 and 2024, prioritizing buildings that have core systems and equipment nearing the end of their useful lives. Those retrofits are supposed to achieve at least 30 percent reductions in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Between 2026 and 2032, DGS must retrofit another 12.5 percent of DC government buildings.
The Sierra Club looks forward to seeing the DGS Strategic Energy Management Plan in January of next year. We urge this Committee to closely monitor the progress of DGS in developing and implementing its plan for energy efficiency retrofits.
DGS Personnel
Amid all these energy and sustainability needs at DGS, the department is without an Associate Director for Sustainability and Energy. The Sierra Club asks that DGS move quickly to hire a highly qualified person to fill this vacancy. As well, we’ve heard from DGS employees that there is a shortage of skilled labor in facilities maintenance in the DC government. This presents an opportunity for training programs, potentially between DGS, DCPS and UDC.
Revenue to Fund Clean Energy Priorities
The Sierra Club applauds Mayor Bowser for including her budget funds for energy efficiency retrofits for buildings and for funding to implement the Clean Energy DC Omnibus Act. We also support her proposed $55 million in additional funding for affordable housing, which allows more people to live in a city with diverse transit options instead of more car-dependent suburbs.
With a $47 million budget shortfall resulting from the federal government shutdown and increasing needs for affordable housing, the Sierra Club applauds Mayor Bowser for identifying sufficient revenue to fund key priorities. The Sierra Club fully supports the Mayor’s budget proposal to increase the tax on commercial properties sold for more than $2 million. As well, the Sierra Club agrees with the Mayor’s budget proposal to reverse the Council’s misguided tax cut for commercial properties assessed at over $10 million. We ask that the DC Council not go forward with tax cuts for wealthy owners of buildings worth millions of dollars. DC has more important priorities than tax giveaways to multi-millionaires.
Conclusion
Thank you, Councilmember White, for hearing our testimony today. The Sierra Club wants to see DGS move forward not only with designing buildings to be efficient but also operating them to save energy, save taxpayer dollars and reduce climate pollution. That will require adequate funding from the DC Council, and we ask your committee to identify and provide that vital funding.